Shadowed by Death

by Jane Beckstead

  “—is my own business,” she finished. “I’ve been very generous with you, Avery, and I’m starting to lose my patience. Everyone outside now.” She held the door open and, after exchanging glances with each other, we all filed past her.

  Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 357 Late afternoon had turned into early evening, and the sun hung low on the horizon. Once we all stood on the quarterdeck, Cat strolled past us. I glanced around, hoping to see Rumford, but he was nowhere in sight.

  After making a few passes back and forth before us, Cat finally spoke. “I’m afraid, Jasper, that the time has come for you to leave us.”

  “Lovely,” Papa said. “Build me a spell back or whatever you wizards do, and I’ll be glad to go.”

  “Oh no. I’m not spelling you home.”

  “What?” I burst out.

  Papa took a step backward, bumping into the master. “What are you going to do, throw me over the side?” His voice sounded almost as though he thought it were a joke, but beneath that I could hear a current of fear.

  “I believe this is what the pirates call ‘walking the plank,’” Cat volunteered. “Only in our case, let’s call it ‘floating over the plank.’” She waved a hand and Papa levitated off the ground and began to move through the air toward the side of the ship.

  “Come on, Cat,” Master Wendyn cut in. “Be reasonable—”

  “Stay out of this,” Cat said, her voice cold as ice, “unless you’re ready to join him.”

  “But we’re in the middle of nowhere!” Orly protested.

  “Precisely what I was waiting for,” Cat said. “You’ll thank “Precisely what I was waiting for,” Cat said. “You’ll thankBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 358

  me for this someday, Avery. All the trouble he’s caused you? You’re on an unhealthy cycle. The man needs to be cut out of your life, and if you won’t do it, I will.”

  Papa’s expression had turned terrified as he floated over the open sea. “I was joking about throwing me over the side. Come on, Cat, don’t do this! I always loved your cooking!”

  Cat ended the spell, and Papa fell screaming into the sea. I rushed to the side of the ship to peer over the side, but I couldn’t get close enough. Every time I got too near the barrier of the fetter’s spell, a shock moved through me, originating at the device round my neck. I could hear Papa below floundering in the water.

  “Help him!” I yelled at Cat. “You can’t just let him drown!”

  “Can’t I?” Cat asked lazily. “But that’s precisely what I mean to do.”

  “You really are a horrible person,” Orly said. “I can’t believe I used to idolize you.”

  I made a noise of frustration and looked to the sea. The ship had moved far enough away from Papa that now I could see him without getting too close to the side. Maybe there was still a way. I threw myself at the side of ship, trying to make my way through the fetter’s barrier by sheer will, but it only shocked me again and again, each time I tried to break through. Finally I stopped long enough to see that Master Wendyn had his hands I stopped long enough to see that Master Wendyn had his handsBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 359

  held out and pointed over the side of the ship, concentrating. At least he was trying to do something productive. Would he be able to do a spell?

  I followed his example, trying to cast a levitation on Papa that would lift him from the water. In the distance he raised up slowly until he was clear of the water. I couldn’t believe it. I was doing magic. Within Cat’s stupid dampening spell I was doing magic!

  But then splash, Papa dropped down again, dunking under the water.

  “Enough of that,” Cat said, looking rather shaken. She sent a spell at me and I found myself frozen in place staring toward the sea, unable to bat even an eyelash. Then behind me a commotion of footsteps and scuffling, and I heard Orly cry out.

  Master Wendyn stepped in front of me, and I felt a pressure at my hand. Then he reached up and touched my cheek. “I’ve got this,” he said. “Your job is to get you and Orly back home.” And with that he turned and leaped over the side. Far below I heard and splash, and then moments later he came into view, stroking toward Papa.

  Bones! I fought the freezing spell, but my connection to magic felt too distant, and I knew I couldn’t have found my way out of it even if it had been cast by a child. As I watched, Master Wendyn reached Papa’s side where he splashed and flailed in the water and circled an arm around his chest.

  And then suddenly they were just gone. I kept my eyes on the spot I had last seen them, but all I could see there now was the rolling and pitching of waves.

  Had Master Wendyn cast a spell? Or had they drowned?

  If only I could move. I’d tell Cat to save them, that I’d go to Belanok with her, just don’t let them die.

  Cat stepped to my side. “Good riddance to those two. This beautiful sea saved me the trouble of having to kill them myself.” I felt her look my way. “I’m going to tell you something, Avery, and it’s for the best, so that you won’t hold out hope for them having done anything miraculous and gotten back to Faronna. Normally the journey from the three kingdoms to Belanok takes two to three weeks. I’ve even heard it taking a month and longer. But my time is precious, as is yours. So when traveling this distance I’ve taken to employing a spell that adds twenty-five knots per hour to the distance this ship would normally cover.”

  The measurement was meaningless to me. I had no idea how far a knot was.

  “That means we’ll be in Belanok in less than two days. I waited till now to release your father, knowing a wizard door would be quite difficult to build at this distance from Faronna.”

  Papa couldn’t build a wizard door. Why couldn’t this awful woman get that through her skull?

  “As soon as those two left the perimeter of my knot spell, they dropped far, far behind us. We’re nearly a knot away from them by now. But don’t worry. I’m sure they’ve gone down already. The end, for them, was swift. And relatively painless.”

  I watched Cat turn from the corner of my eye, looking behind us. “You two have a lot to learn. Is disobedience bred into young Faronnan women these days?” She shook her head and faced forward again. “Why don’t you two get some rest, and we can discuss our plans in the morning.” She looked over at me then. “Oh, stop that. Disgusting. I can’ t watch this.” She walked away, and I felt myself released from the freezing spell.

  Three steps forward, and I threw myself at the side of the boat. “Master Wendyn! Papa! Master Wendyn! Papa!” I yelled over and over. My eyes never left the spot I’d last seen them.

  Finally, when I was hoarse and the sun nearly gone, a noise in the darkening gloom behind alerted me, and I looked around. Orly lay on the deck, a hand to her head. I hurried nearer and helped her sit up.

  “Ugh. She hit me. Can you believe it?” She rubbed at the back of her head, then rolled to her knees. “Did they—where are they?”

  “I don’t know. The master is resourceful,” I said. “I’m sure he got them out of there.”

  But I knew I didn’t believe it, even as I said it.

  I helped Orly up, and the two of us stood at the boat’s I helped Orly up, and the two of us stood at the boat’sBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 362

  railing, staring out at the dark, swirling sea. Wind tugged at my hair and touched my cheeks.

  My tears never stopped.

  # CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX I awoke early and remembered. In the shadowy light of morning, I stared at the dark space before my eyes and felt ashamed. I’d cried myself to sleep at the hopelessness of our situation, thinking ahead to what life would be like in Belanok. Now as a reward I had puffy eyes and a head that ached.

  I’d given up too easily. My head felt clearer than it had last night, and I suddenly knew I wouldn’t capitulate. Cat wouldn’t take me to Belanok without a fight. I straightened my shoulders and turned my thoughts to a counterattack.

  In the bed next to me, I heard Orly move.

&nbs
p; “Avery? You awake?”

  I grunted. “Didn’t you sleep?

  “Some. Are you feeling any better?”

  “Some.”

  A pause stretched between us until Orly asked, “Do you

  think your father and Master Wendyn got away?”

  I swallowed back the deep-down fear that they didn’t. “I can’t think about that right now,” I finally said. “Look, I can’t think about that right now,” I finally said. “Look, I

  Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 363 figure we have about a day and a half until we reach Belanok. We should decide what we’re going to do to keep that from happening.”

  “Do people ever escape from there?”

  “From Belanok? I don’t know.”

  “Well, I’ll escape,” she said stoutly. “They’ll be sorry

  they ever took me prisoner. I’ll try to get out every day until I succeed.”

  I smiled in the darkness, pleased at this sign of life from Orly. “Don’t worry. We’re going home.”

  “When?”

  “Today, I hope. We just have to outsmart Cat.” My face screwed up in thought. “What I can’t figure out is how in the three kingdoms she always seems to know what we’re doing before we do it.”

  “That’s precognition,” Orly said. “I read a book about that.”

  “And?”

  “It’s kind of a murky area with the Council. They don’t approve of precognition on the whole. But there are any number of spells she could be using. It’s possible, if we knew which one, we could block it.” After a pause she went on, “That is, if we had access to magic.”

  “Yeah. There’s that problem too,” I said.

  “But I saw you cast that levitation spell on your father “But I saw you cast that levitation spell on your fatherBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 364

  yesterday. You had him clear of the water even. How did you do that?” I shook my head. “I don’t know the answer to that. Sometimes magic…does extraordinary things.” My thoughts turned to the gilded tongue spell I had cast in Waltney, the one that seemed to have taken on a life of its own.

  “It was probably the emotion. You were very distraught at the time. ‘A spell with extraordinary emotion at the root of it will do extraordinary things.’”

  I recognized the quote. “That’s from Magic and the Female Mind, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. I wonder if you could do it again.”

  The room had begun to brighten, and I got out of bed to look at the angle of the sun. Orly pushed herself to a sitting position and watched me.

  “She’ll be up now,” I said. “She’s probably preparing her foul morning tea as we speak.”

  “She has bad taste in tea, does she?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. It just smells horrible.”

  “Really?” Interest splashed across her face. “What’s the smell?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.”

  I considered. “Turpentine, I guess.”

  Orly snapped her fingers. “That’s no morning tea—I’ll bet Orly snapped her fingers. “That’s no morning tea—I’ll betBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 365

  it’s a potion. I’ve read about a class of future spells that smells like it could eat paint. How often does she drink it?” I shrugged. “Most days, I guess.”

  “It could be a daily future potion. It gives a vision of everything that will happen to a person on the day they drink it.”

  “Do you think it could be? It would explain a lot.” I thought for a minute before continuing, “But it doesn’t explain how we’re going to outsmart her and get off this ship. If she already knows everything we’re going to do before we do it, then she probably already knows we’re having this conversation right now.”

  Orly shook her head. “She can only see things that involve her. She’d have to be spying on this conversation right now in order to see it in her future…” Orly trailed off before continuing, “…and she very well could be listening to this conversation right now. We can’t even cast a privacy spell to prevent it. Drat.”

  A sudden noise in the hall had me holding my hand up for Orly to stop talking. Then a soft knock sounded on the door.

  We exchanged a glance. Then, since I was up, I stepped to the door and quietly opened it. Rumford stood there.

  “Hey. Sorry to disturb you so early in the morning, but it was the only time I could get away. Have either of you noticed that my mother is a little…well, crazy?”

  After a moment’s consideration, I held the door open. “You’d better come in.”

  ***

  Rumford stood awkwardly near the closed door, hands jammed into his pockets. “Where’s Master Wendyn? And that other man?”

  “You mean my father?” I said, suddenly angry with him that he didn’t even know Papa’s identity. Papa, who his mother had thrown into the sea like a heap of refuse. “Didn’t you hear? Your mother tossed Papa into the sea last night and Master Wendyn jumped in after him. We haven’t seen them since.”

  “You see? That’s what I’m talking about. I get the sense she’s not quite right up here.” He tapped the side of his head. After a pause he continued, “Oh, and I’m very sorry about your father and master, Avery.”

  I shook my head at the trite words. “What were you thinking of to come here, Rummy, leaving your apprenticeship and everything you’ve worked so hard for?”

  “You make it sound like the craziest thing in the world. Well, you’re the one who passed my mother’s message on to me. If you thought she was crazy, you might have mentioned it.”

  “Hey. It’s not Avery’s job to do your research for you,” Orly said sharply.

  Rumford sighed heavily, perched on one of the beds, and put his head in his hands. “I know. Fine. It was stupid. But everything seemed kind of meaningless when I saw how little my everything seemed kind of meaningless when I saw how little myBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 367

  father cared for me. I had high hopes for my mother. I truly thought she loved me enough to make up for my father. The only problem is she’s cracked.”

  “Do you think she’d use a listening spell to spy on this conversation?” Orly asked.

  He straightened. “I don’t know. She was asleep when I left our cabin. I don’t know if she’s the sort of woman to use listening spells or not. I have noticed that she’s ridiculously reliant on magic. I don’t think the woman sneezes without using a spell to wipe her nose.”

  “What surprises me,” I said, “is that she cares about you so much. Especially when she has such a loathing for men.”

  “I’m not sure she does love me. I think it’s just the idea of me. She mostly keeps talking about when I was a baby—the clothes she dressed me in, the tiny socks she knitted—or magically knitted, rather—and how my ears stuck out. She’s not too interested in hearing about the person I am today.” He stared down at his hands. “Not to mention the crazy things she keeps saying: ‘We’ll show the three kingdoms one day.’ ‘They’ll be sorry when we defeat them.’ ‘Women will save the world from men.’ I think this was a mistake.”

  “You don’t have to stay,” Orly said. “You could always get away.”

  Rumford raised his gaze to Orly’s. “How did you end up here, anyway?”

  “I came to help Avery. I had no idea your mother would be so interested in me.”

  “I remember your father from the library. Maximo, right? Does he know where you’re at?”

  Orly’s chin trembled and she swiped at her eyes.

  “Aw, come on. I can’t get used to all this crying.”

  She sniffed and got herself under control. “No, he doesn’t know,” she said, raising her chin.

  “But she’ll be seeing him again soon, and she can explain the whole thing to him then.” I fixed my eyes on Rumford. “Are you going to help us, Rummy?”

  His shoulders straightened. “You bet I will. I’d like to get out of here as much as you two. Maybe Master Sutherland will take me
back.” He stared at his hands. “I just hope my mother doesn’t kill me for it.”

  “You should probably go before she notices you’re missing,” I said. “Meet us here tonight after bed and we can discuss our plans.”

  He nodded and pushed himself off the bed. “Yeah, I should probably go.”

  “Oh, and if you happen to see a small lock-pick tool that your mother took from me, so much the better. Without it Orly and I can’t leave the ship.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out.”

  A moment later the door quietly closed behind him. I looked A moment later the door quietly closed behind him. I lookedBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 369

  over at Orly and found her already looking at me.

  “Can we trust him?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I think so, but I don’t

  know.”

  “Me neither.”

  ***

  During breakfast, Orly and I made a point of watching Cat

  to see what she ate. But there was no sign of her malodorous tea. Either she had drunk it earlier in her cabin, or else we were wrong and it was just a harmless beverage she brewed at the Hall every now and then.

  “Avery, I’m happy to see you’ve given up your hysterics.” Cat bit into a creamy-looking pastry.

  I frowned at her. “Interesting that you call it hysterics. I’d call it grieving.”

  “Either way. There are things worth grieving, and Jasper Mullins and Garrick Wendyn aren’t it.”

  I seethed, gripping my fork tightly. It took everything in me not to grab my mug of magicked milk—everything on the table had been magicked by Cat—and toss it in her face. “I don’t think we’re going to agree on that.”

  “No matter. But now that we’re rid of them, you two can start your Belanokian education. You’re leaps and bounds behind most witches-in-training in Belanok.”

  Orly, for the first time, looked a little bit interested. Orly, for the first time, looked a little bit interested.Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 370

  “Is that what you all are, then? Witches? Not a wizard in sight? “We do not discriminate in Belanok. Men are allowed to do